


And Here We Go Again

by Izuka_Ren



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Child Abuse, Child Eren Yeager, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izuka_Ren/pseuds/Izuka_Ren
Summary: She had been a bad person in her past. Based on what they’d forced her to remember, she had been a really bad person. Maybe, that is why- this life- what they were doing to her- it was atonement. Her sweet punishment.
Relationships: Annie Leonhart & Eren Yeager
Kudos: 27





	And Here We Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> So I found this one shot I wrote about 3 years back and decided to just post it. So this does not take the current events of the manga into consideration.
> 
> The work is unbeta'd.
> 
> Warning-  
> There is kidnapping and torture of children and things get a little graphic.

Annie had been a bad person in her past. Based on what they’d forced her to remember, she had been a really bad person. She had betrayed and killed her friends in large numbers and even though a part of her had screamed at her to just stop, she had done her duty and carried on killing. She could feel the people getting squished under her gigantic hands like ants, coming away as nothing but splatters of blood _(blood, so much blood)_ and torn cloth pieces. She could _taste_ their blood on her tongue and feel their flesh stuck between her teeth. She could recollect the horrified, terrified expressions of her victims.

No, she mused too spent to even feel nauseous; she had not been a nice person.

Maybe, that is why- this life- what they were doing to her- it was atonement. Her sweet punishment.

She’s been 10 years when she’s been taken from her parents and informed that she’s be a weapon for humanity against the Daywalkers- Not Titans, easier to deal with, but still able to cause multiple fatalities.

It wasn’t just her.

There’d been a blonde, much older boy and another boy, raven haired, who’d trained alongside her.

It was only after they made her remember that she knew their names- Reiner and Berthold. They’d been like her.

They were collecting their dues just like her.

They were monitored all the time.

Morning- training till they dropped and evening- new and various tortures they’d come up with.

She didn’t know much about the people who’d taken her. Just that they hated the weapons placed in their place- gleam in their eyes whenever they put shackles on her.

The first year _(week, month, year- she had no idea. It could have been one month, it could have been one decade)_ had been the hardest. She had screamed and sobbed for her mother in vain trying to understand what exactly they wanted from her, why they kept on hurting her over and over and over.

Later she focussed her energy on the Daywalkers, on killing them. It made things a little better- like the screams in her head had been quietened a little.

They didn’t talk much- her, Reiner and Berthold.

They didn’t really know what to say. They’d long stopped trying to comfort each other, tired of lies and false hope.

They’d faced the reality instead.

They had been bad people.

They were paying for it now.

They’d brought in a new person.

A girl. They tossed her into Annie’s room and she curled up into a small ball against the wall, choking back sobs.

Annie watched her unsure of what to do and as the girl raised her head finally, she felt her eyes widen and a distant dull ache in her chest.

It wasn’t because the child resembled Eren Yeager, it wasn’t because Humanity’s Last Hope was a girl- it was because she was so _small_.

Too young to go through whatever they were going to put her through. Too young to have her memories forced on her- a process that could damage people’s brain- a process that had rendered Annie catatonic for nearly a month _(again, a day, a week, a month- she had no idea)_.

The girl asked her in a trembling high pitched voice who she was, where they were, what was going to happen to her.

Annie listened to her quietly, not responding.

Deeming that Annie was not a threat, the girl’s form relaxed a little and in a hesitant voice said that her name was Nicola. She asked who Annie was again.

Annie closed her eyes.

They took Nicola away, screaming and kicking the next morning.

She was finally brought back after nearly a week, a dull dazed look in her look as she stumbled and fell against the wall. There were no bruise on her but that didn’t count. Annie knew how fast their scars could heal. Testing that was a routine activity on the part of their tormentors.

Nicola stopped talking.

She was a baby and she’d been easy to break.

She was quiet, obedient and her training moved at a rapid pace. She had picked up that she could only rely on herself to survive when in the beginning few days, she’s fallen into a trap and the Daywalkers had torn chunks of her flesh with their teeth. Her scream had been animalistic and terrible.

The person in charge had just watched and made notes while Berthold trembled beside her and Reiner looked away. Annie- Annie tried to think desperately of a time when she hadn’t been so bad, a world where people had forgiven her.

They were sent in to retrieve her when she finally fell unconscious. By night time, all her injuries were gone.

One night, Nicola left her usual corner of the floor and climbed into bed with her.

Annie lay still wondering what she wanted.

Nicola peered in to her face with those familiar turquoise eyes and said clearly- ‘Annie’.

Whatever the kid saw in her face, made her expression contort and then in a small trembling voice, she gasped out- ‘Annie, Annie, Annie...’

She buried her face in Annie’s neck and kept on saying her name like it was the only thing she knew.

There it was again. That dull ache except it wasn’t so dull or distant anymore.

She placed a hand on the girl’s head stroking her hair while tears and probably snot slid down the side of her neck.

She never asked Nicola how old she was.

Nicola’s shoulders were never slumped. Sure she had a habit of slouching but her fear seemed to decrease over time. Maybe it had been tortured out of her. Their captors did not like that.

Nicola had been put through the same thing they’ all been put through- skin peeled away, nails torn off, teeth knocked out over and over and over to test how fast they could regenerate, how many times, how far their limits could be stretched.

Their punishers seemed to have a special hatred for Nicola though.

She’s slipped up during training and Annie hadn’t seen her during 5 days now. Then the door opened and the girl in question was shoved in.

For a moment Annie just stared uncomprehendingly.

There was a lot of blood ( _blood, always blood)_ but her face- her _eyes_.

Oh, Annie thought. She could see the nerve endings dangling from where the eyeballs had been torn out. With that thought, she tried to swallow back the bile but ended up retching on the floor.

“Annie, Annie,” form the corner of her eyes, she could see the kid groping around, trying to find her.

She stumbled over the stool and fell down. She didn’t try getting up, just reached out her hands like a toddler and kept on saying Annie’s name insistently.

Numbly Annie wiped her mouth, knelt in front of her and took her hand- willing to give whatever the kid wanted at that moment- her soul, her body, her mind, her eyes...

Nicola just gripped her hand tightly; a large relieved smile like she thought Annie had disappeared and left her behind.

“Annie,” she whispered like she was telling a secret, “They took my eyes, Annie.”

Annie clutched her hand back, eyes feeling hot.

“Annie?”

Annie went round her so that the damaged part was facing away and looping her arms around the kid’s chest, pressed her tightly against herself.

Nicola hummed and reaching out a hand, patted her on the head clumsily.

They were in the middle of their training when Annie was knocked to the ground.

For a moment, as several gnarly decomposed hands reached out for her, she just laid there, wondering what the point was of fighting back.

“ **Don’t** ”

And just like that, the hands stopped. The multiple Daywalkers stood there staring down at her with sightless eyes as if wondering at the obstacle in their path. The moment broke. Annie kicked one knocking it back into the others and using the time to get up, threw herself at another, plunging the knife into its neck, using the momentum to swing over the one she’s dealt with to face the others.

The training continued.

She was suddenly hyperaware of all the cameras in the surrounding trees and the one on her body, heavy like a ticking bomb.

With a sinking feeling, she wondered if Nicola realised just how much more difficult her life was about to become.

They made Nicola go out in the forest outside the wall, alone with no weapons and strict orders not to retaliate with anything except her voice.

They were forced to watch her getting torn apart. And then again. And again. And again.

They stopped once they realised that she could no longer heal.

Annie watched as they hurried past her with Nicola’s mangled body on a stretcher. She didn’t really feel anything.

_Maybe she was finally immune to all the horror and gore the world could possibly throw at her._

She was staring at the ceiling when the door opened with a slam startling her.

“Get ready immediately.” They said tersely. “We have a situation.”

Annie did so mind whirling.

It was past midnight. Daywalkers were called so for a reason. As far as she knew, there had not been a single attack at night.

Hoisting her firearm up, she patted her knives absentmindedly running to her position, not acknowledging Reiner or Berthold.

She swallowed when she saw the scene in front of her. Thousands of Daywalkers streaming through the wall gates which were forced open by a –log?

“Kill them now and close the gates!” screamed a captor as the creatures ran towards them.

The 3 of them lifted her weapons and charged. Soon, Annie realised something was weird. The Daywalkers weren’t paying her any attention, just kept running past her-

Annie turned and watched with wide eyes and the Daywalkers infiltrated the main facility, falling ravenously on their screaming victims.

What in the world?

Reiner and Berthold looked just as stunned and the 3 of them just ended up standing and watching, Daywalkers steering around them in a clear path, at this _miracle_ unfolding in front of them.

Distantly she heard someone screaming at her to fucking move but for the first time, she ignored an order. The tracker in her shoulder grew warm and suddenly there was current everywhere and she couldn’t breathe, vision blurring, bringing her down to her knees and-it stopped.

Annie looked up and her eyes met Nicola’s- the kid’s mouth was stained with blood and fleshy bits from the captor’s ( _the one who watched them so intently through the screens and meticulously took notes, the one who planned thought of new training and experiments)_ throat she’d just torn out.

Her hands were cuffed behind and she had several bite marks yet to heal- but she was grinning ferociously, eyes shining and alive.

And fuck- Annie could feel her mouth responding in kind, muscles in her face feeling strange from lack of use. As she looked at the other 2, heart pounding, she could see her wary joy and awe and _hope_ reflected in their faces.

In the midst of the desolate screams and inhumane roars, Annie laughed.


End file.
